Alex Mizrahi, HuffPo spoiler

ALEX MIZRAHI, a social-media expert who out of frustration with “curiosity-gap” clickbait tweets founded the Twitter account @HuffPoSpoilers, likes to get viral for the people (which might explain why he’s landed the job of Social Media Associate at Blue State Digital since his Twitter experiment exploded). Capital’s JEREMY BARR asked him via email what it’s like to be a digital crusader, and what he thinks about the many who have followed his path.

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CAPITAL: Why did you start @HuffPoSpoilers? Have you been happy with the account’s longevity?

MIZRAHI: I created HPS out of frustration and annoyance, nothing more, and kept it going in the months that followed as my own personal relief valve when I saw especially egregious tweets. Once it took off, eight months or so after it was created, my enthusiasm for it went in waves. Sometimes the inanity was just too much for me to take, and sometimes the inanity allowed for moments of revelation. And while I am happy at its longevity, I know there were probably opportunities over the past year where I could have done more with it; alas, I got beat to that punch. Then again, if I tried to ramp things up I’d have less time to focus on my actual job, which would have brought it’s own set of complications. Also, Huffington Post is BY FAR the worst proprietor of lowest-common-denominator, no-personality tweets, and therefore the most worthy of scorn — especially when considering its enormous following.

CAPITAL: Another Twitter parody account, @SavedYouAClick, has sort of replicated your model but applied it to the entire media industry. What are your thoughts on the media attention that’s been lavished recently on the account and its creator, Jake Beckman?

MIZRAHI: Overall, I’m 100% happy for Jake and his success, he’s a good dude and has really grabbed the baton and run with it. He’s quickly become the go-to reference-point for clickbait-fighting. The best analogy I can come up with (so far—I hope to come up with a better one soon) is, I’m black & white movies, he’s color, and the Wizard of Oz just came out.

What I find a bit frustrating are the articles that have come out that appear to have no idea HPS ever existed or came first. Though I must say, the most ridiculous have been David Pogue’s recurring feature where he seems to think he’s struck on an amazing idea. They crack me up.

CAPITAL: Do you think media organizations have cut back on curiosity-gap headlines in response to the gentle mocking they’ve received from accounts like yours?

MIZRAHI: Well, first off it’s not the headlines that bother me, it’s the tweets. There’s a definite difference there. Huffington Post headlines are much more explanatory and useful than its tweets about the same story, and often much more accurate. HP would be far less insufferable if it simply tweeted headlines.

But to answer your question: not really. Some publications send click-bait tweets pseudo-ironically, pretending they’re in on the joke when really they’re just using that wink-and-nod as cover to get away with actually clickbaiting. Sometimes Huffington Post will surprise me by using a qualifier, but for the most part they rely on absolutes— “always” and “never” and “of all time”, etc.—to make something seem more exciting or awesome than it actually is. But absolutes are rarely accurate, and sound foolish.

CAPITAL: It’s extremely challenging to create a viral Twitter account. Did @HuffPoSpoilers open up any employment opportunities for you? Were you ever interested in working for The Huffington Post?

MIZRAHI: While I had a job when I started the feed, I was “freelancing” when it blew up, and you better believe it went right to the top of the resume. I think it may have opened some doors in terms of getting interviews, but it certainly didn’t get me my job. I had to prove my worth beyond that, and fortunately I was able to.

And to clarify, I didn’t start HPS in order to go viral. I started it because I found it cathartic, and to this day I still view it as a utility, not a parody. While it has its moments of attempted humor and peanut gallery ombudsmanship — seriously though, how does the Huffington Post NOT have an ombudsman/ombudswoman (ombud?) by now? — first and foremost it’s a service. Which is why I usually still leave links in. I’ll fill in the blank, and if that blank makes a follower want to read more, that’s fine. It’s only the more stupid or blatant clickbait tweets that I delete the link.

CAPITAL: Do you have other parody Twitter accounts or media satire projects in the works? What’s the next frontier of Twitter mockery?

MIZRAHI: I’ve had some ideas for possible Twitter accounts, none i’d call parody though (and none I’m willing to discuss at the moment). I did create @NPRFunFacts years ago, which is mostly dormant but I would love to get rolling again. It’s not a parody feed though, it’s a fan feed.

As for what’s next in the world of Twitter mockery … I long for the day when the horrible and unfunny Bill Murray and Will Farrell parody feeds wither and die. If you follow and/or retweet them, I will judge you. There must be a way to mock them to death, I’m just not sure I’m the person to do it.